Bush to Give Senate Panel Some Domestic Spying Docs, But Will It Sway Anti-Immunity Lawmakers?

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Bush to Give Senate Panel Some Domestic Spying Docs, But Will It Sway Anti-Immunity Lawmakers?

Just days before the Senate Judiciary committee begins deliberating a bill expanding the government's spying power, the White House announced that the Committee can see some legal memos justifying and approving the government's secret, warrantless spying program.

But the White House will not extend that privilege to the House Intelligence or Judiciary committees, according to the New York Times, since their bill doesn't include retroactive immunity for the telcos that likely violated federal privacy laws by helping the government spy on Americans without warrants.

The Senate Judiciary committee subpoenaed those and many, many other documents this summer, but the administration ignored chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) until they need him to relent on his opposition to immunity for companies like AT&T and Verizon that are being sued with some success by citizens for violating their privacy rights. Leahy never forced a showdown with the White House over the subpoenas.

The White House is plainly admitting again that it is using security classifications for political ends in the debate over whether Congress should intervene in the court cases against the nation's largest telecoms and whether the Administration should be able to unilaterally order the nation's email, phone, internet and instant messaging companies to work with the nation's spies.

But will the Senate realize the game afoot is purely political and now move their own goal posts?

Will Sens. Leahy and ranking Judiciary committee Republican Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania) be satisfied with seeing only the legal documents that came after the Intensive Care Showdown at Ashcroft's hospital bedside? (note: this is a hypothetical - it's not yet public exactly how comprehensive the documents shown to the Intelligence committee were.)

The beginnings of the answers to those questions may come next Wednesday with potentially damning testimony from two witnesses.

One is former Justice Department attorney Patrick Philbin, one of the conservative lawyers that led a revolt against the eavesdropping programs' legal basis and who, according to fellow conservative revolter Jack Goldsmith, faced retaliation from David Addington, Vice President Cheney's lawyer, for his role.

The other is Edward Black, the CEO and president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, who last week sent Speaker Nancy Pelosi a letter (.pdf) opposing immunity for the telecoms. The group's members include Yahoo!, Google, Sun and Microsoft.

CCIA opposes the Administration's push for blanket immunity for telecommunications companies that have accommodated questionable or illegal government requests for wiretapping and surveillance. CCIA encourages you to reject broad immunity provisions in favor of a better balance between legitimate national security interests and basic Fourth Amendment privacy for U.S. citizens.